For the past month or so, I've ready a ton of previews on the upcoming season and writers from all over the US, of which many of them have said something along the lines of this guy is poised for greatness this year. Some calling him the breakout player, others calling him the underrated difference maker. I don't know where they are coming up with this stuff. Why are so many writers so high on this guy, he's done nothing. Sure the coaching staff has penciled him as the guy in the middle and sorta his job to lose. But he really doesn't have anything to show for his first few seasons. Not that we have anything behind him that would make you believe he couldn't win the job but I just don't get why they think he's going to have this break out year. I guess it remains to be seen, if he can play well enough to hold off the other guys.

He has lots of special teams tackles and he was just a 3rd round pick.

When I look at Irving I see a LBer. He is the prototypical LBer. Good size, speed and he does hit. Now he needs to put it together. He is a 3rd round pick and this is his 3rd year. Anyone calling him a disappointment is jumping the gun, I believe.

He has lots of special teams tackles and he was just a 3rd round pick.

When I look at Irving I see a LBer. He is the prototypical LBer. Good size, speed and he does hit. Now he needs to put it together. He is a 3rd round pick and this is his 3rd year. Anyone calling him a disappoint is jumping the gun I believe.

This is the year we find out if he will be solid.

Forget ST's. We're talking about him as a LB'er. He does hit? What does he hit? The sleds in practice? Because he's sure not hitting anything on the field during games, as a MLB.

He has lots of special teams tackles and he was just a 3rd round pick.

When I look at Irving I see a LBer. He is the prototypical LBer. Good size, speed and he does hit. Now he needs to put it together. He is a 3rd round pick and this is his 3rd year. Anyone calling him a disappoint is jumping the gun I believe.

This is the year we find out if he will be solid.

Good point about the special teams tackles, those aren't included at pro-football-reference.com. Here's his revised stats if we include special teams:

The reason a lot of people have been high on Irving is by simply watching his college film. In his college film you see a player that has great instincts and takes great angles. Nate had 21.5 tackles for loss his senior year! I have been disappointed in his career so far but I still have faith that when he does get his chance he won't wow anybody but could very well rival Wesley with the teams leading tackle total.